Fred Harrill Jr., who is unopposed in War No. 1, was not present. Kevin Allen previously announced he has withdrawn from the race.

The forum was sponsored by the Cleveland County branch of the NAACP.

Here are the four candidates’ responses to key questions about the future of Shelby.

What is your vision for bringing more job opportunities into Shelby?

Ben Kittrell, Ward 5: “My main goal is to increase the tax base for the city so that the city can survive financially. The city can only provide services that match with the revenue that comes in. The only way to increase revenue is with the tax base.”

Bill Gray, Ward 5: “We’re looking at more involvement. More input from individuals will help more than anything.” Gray said he believes the city council needs to be more transparent.

Neil Blanton, Ward 4: “I do have a specific vision for this. The most important thing I bring to this job is a business education. I worked for a large corporation for 30 years. I understand what is needed. We can bring more industry to Cleveland County, but not on the path we’re on.”

Dennis Bailey, Ward 4: “My vision to bring more job opportunities is fairly simple. It’s what we’ve been doing but doubling the efforts. I proposed that we start that job-ready building and that building is complete.” The building was purchased by Schletter, which brought more than 300 jobs to the county, Bailey said.

The news media has reported that a gambling casino could begin operation in this area within two years. What type of impact do you feel this would have on the City of Shelby?

Kittrell: “Personally I struggle with it a little bit. Our county’s hurting. We need jobs very badly. This seems like it’s just falling into our lap. But I’ve lived in a city that had casinos before. And it made the front-page news when you had a family that left their children in the parking garage in the car because they had a gambling addiction.” Kittrell said if the casino comes to Cleveland County, the city may have to counter negative impacts.

Gray: “I’m against the casino. It’s like a trick, because we do need the jobs so bad. But we need to do it another way. To me, it’s the way the devil works to get you in a bind. I’m against it. It’s just morally wrong.”

Blanton: “From what I’ve read, if there was a casino, it’s going to employ somewhere around four to five thousand people. That is a tremendous amount of people.” Blanton said he has traveled across the nation, including to Biloxi, Miss.

“It is hard to overstate the impact the casinos have in Biloxi, Miss. If we can get four to five thousand jobs here, I think that is absolutely wonderful. So I will support a casino, and not only a casino, but any business that brings good, quality jobs to this area.”

Bailey: “Anytime you bring three to four thousand jobs to an area, you’re going to change unemployment dramatically. It would bring a lot of jobs and it’s good-paying jobs, but our legislators need to balance that with the impact to the community. If I had a say, I’d have to ask a lot more questions of the powers that be on how we’re going to ensure that we won’t have increased crime or family problems because of the gambling trade coming to our county.”

What are your goals and priorities for the City of Shelby for the next two years and how do you plan to achieve them?

Kittrell: “I’m running for city council to be a servant to the people, not someone who rules over them. Government should be small, because when government is small, the people are powerful. My main goal is to build up the tax base in our city, because if we can build up the tax base, we can bring more revenue to the government. The only way to do that is to bring businesses and people to Shelby. Shelby has so much to offer, but the city has areas that don’t look good and we need to work to improve the way the city looks so that people will want to move here.”

Gray: “If I was on the city council, I believe I would be interested in transparency. The city council don’t listen. The public doesn’t care. They don’t feel like they get a voice. I just want to be a watchdog. I want to see that I’m served.”

Blanton: “My number one goal, the most important goal of all, is if I’m elected, you will have a voice on city council. I want everyone included at the city council meetings. No matter what else we do, if we don’t include everybody, we are going to fail.”

Bailey: “It’s to continue a goal that I started when I first came on council. We have an extremely excessive fund balance, which is a rainy day fund.”

Bailey said the fund balance is at several million dollars and that city council should use that balance instead of raising taxes on citizens.

“My number two goal: jobs. It fixes all of our ailments. We have to be able to compensate our employees. Our police and fire are grossly underpaid, and it’s something we have to combat.”